Half of stun gun-related deaths in Connecticut over the past decade involved police in New Britain and Meriden

Nearly half of the 15 stun gun-related deaths in Connecticut over the past decade happened after confrontations with police in New Britain and Meriden, according to available records and reports.

Four people died following police incidents in New Britain, and three in Meriden after being hit by police electronic stun guns. No other police department in Connecticut recorded more than one stun gun-related death during that same 10-year period, according to available records and news reports.

State officials and civil rights activists say they have no definite explanations for why New Britain's and Meriden's records on stun gun-related deaths are so different from those in other Connecticut cities in the past decade. But they agree that questions about those fatalities helped convince the General Assembly to pass reforms dealing with police use of Tasers, which are used by most police departments in Connecticut, and other stun guns, and to spur local police policy changes in both cities.

"I don't know why there were so many [stun-gun related] deaths in those two cities," said Michael Lawlor, Gov. Dannel Malloy's top criminal justice adviser. "Maybe they used stun guns more often than in other communities."

New Britain Police Chief James Wardwell has been an officer in that city for more than 21 years and became chief in 2013. He said it's possible his department may have employed stun guns far more often after they were first issued to New Britain officers beginning in 2003 than they do today.

"Historically, when Tasers first came in… they might have been used more frequently," Wardwell said, adding, "I don't think that's true now." Wardwell said New Britain police has recently adopted stringent new training and Taser use-of-force standards.

David McGuire, an attorney with the Connecticut chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, is hesitant to speculate on the reasons for the number of stun gun-related fatalities in the two cities. "I don't know what explains that," he said.

McGuire also said the ACLU has tried not to focus on any individual municipality in the group's quest for Taser reforms. "Our perspective is that it's not productive to single out one department," McGuire said. "That's why we pushed for reform on a statewide basis."

None of the police officers involved in these incidents were determined to have used their stun guns improperly. The electronic shocks they administered were not listed by the state Medical Examiner's Office as a direct cause of death in any of the New Britain and Meriden cases.

In Meriden, Police Chief Jeffry Cossette last year told the City Council that, while several deaths in that municipality had followed the use of police stun guns, the Tasers weren't responsible for the deaths. "Tasers don't cause that," Cossette said.

The reforms approved by state lawmakers last year include requiring every Connecticut police department to either adopt a new state model policy for use of police stun guns. Beginning this month, all police agencies will be required to report to the state on every single instance when a stun gun is used by a cop.

The model policy was devised by the state's Police Officer Standards and Training Council. Its key recommendations include that stun guns not be used "on any subject demonstrating only passive resistance," such as refusing to get out of a car or when a handcuffed prisoner isn't complying with police orders. It also recommends police be very cautious about multiple shocks and using a stun gun on people with obvious physical or mental health issues.

Several controversial stun gun-related deaths in Connecticut involved people who were subjected to repeated shocks from the stun guns, were having serious mental health problems, or were only passively resisting police, according to available reports.

Abuse scandals, investigations in Meriden

Police in Meriden have been hammered in recent years by abuse scandals and investigations, including one case that sent Chief Cossette's son, former Officer Evan Cossette, to prison for abusing a prisoner. In a separate lawsuit, the evidence includes a 2011 hospital security video showing then-Officer Evan Cossette punching and using a stun gun on a man named Joey Bryans, who was lying on the ground.

In his official report, Evan Cossette said Bryans was running away from police, but Bryans claims all he was doing was going outside for a smoke.

In 2013, a man named Noel Mendoza appeared in Meriden police headquarters' parking lot, acting strangely and seeking help. Police said they used a stun gun on him because he became combative. But ACLU officials said they reviewed a security camera recording that showed Mendoza being hit with a stun gun while sitting on a stretcher beside an ambulance. Mendoza later died in a hospital emergency room, and the cause of death was listed as "cocaine toxicity."

McGuire said Meriden has already created its own new stun gun-use policy for people having a mental health crisis, one McGuire believes could be a model for the nation.

Meriden's new police restricts use of stun guns when someone is clearly having major mental health issues, according to McGuire. The new "Swarm" policy calls for a group of police to tackle the individual all at once, with one officer grabbing the person around the torso and four others restraining the person's arms and legs rather than using stun guns.

"We think it's a much more responsible policy," McGuire said.

Lawlor acknowledges there are "a lot of legitimate questions" about police use of stun guns in Connecticut. He said the new state reporting system on police use of electronic weapons is likely to "result in them being used less frequently."